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Article: Don't reject me, fetus tells Mom.(research indicates enzyme called indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase suppresses maternal immune system and prevents rejection of fetus)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- September 5, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It's one of the more enduring mysteries of immunology: Why doesn't a pregnant mother reject the baby in her womb as if it were a transplanted organ? In the Aug. 21 Science, investigators present new evidence that the fetus actively defends itself by suppressing the immune cells of its mother.
Scientists often describe the immune system as discerning between self and nonself and attacking the latter. This model, although criticized by some immunologists, has helped to explain how the body defends itself against pathogens, rejects transplanted organs, and, in autoimmune diseases, wages war on its own tissues. The self-nonself paradigm also suggests that a ...